Procedural Justice and Psychological Effects of Criminal Proceedings: The Moderating Effect of Offense Type

It is well-established that victims of crime have numerous preferences when encountering the criminal justice system. Often, research examines these preferences in terms of procedural justice, asserting that elements such as voice, respect, and fair treatment may lead to greater satisfaction and more positive experiences. Positive experiences also entail preventing secondary victimization by the legal system. Much of the research surrounding this topic, however, discusses victims of crime as a single entity. The current research examines if differences among crime victims, namely whether they suffered sexual or non-sexual victimizations, influence their legal preferences. Victims of sexual assault have undergone particularly traumatic and stigmatizing experiences that may warrant a greater need for expression and understanding of their harm. It is hypothesized that for victims of sexual assault, there will be a stronger association between procedural justice and negative psychological effects of criminal proceedings. Therefore, type of offense is examined as a moderator variable of this relationship. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that there is in fact an interaction effect for procedural justice and psychological effects, suggesting that these preferences are more desired by victims of sexual assault.     

Psychological effects of criminal proceedings through contact with the judge: the moderating effect of legal system structure

Psychological effects of criminal proceedings on victims have often been the focus of victimological research. The criminal justice system is repeatedly acknowledged as a source of additional harm for victims. Such a generalization, however, cannot be made to all legal systems universally to the same degree. This article compares the adversarial and inquisitorial structures of criminal justice and examines how the latter may in fact be beneficial to victim's well-being. More specifically, contact with the judge and presence at trial may be one positive form of victim participation in its most informal sense. Hierarchical regression analysis is conducted using victims of serious crimes in the Netherlands and New South Wales (NSW), Australia, to test this hypothesis. The type of legal system (i.e., inquisitorial versus adversarial) is used as a moderating variable on the relationship between contact with the judge and psychological effects. The findings indicate that victims in the Netherlands report a significant relationship, where contact with the judge is predictive of a less negative impact on psychological effects, while a non-significant relationship is found for victims in NSW.     

Is restorative justice for sexual crime compatible with various criminal justice systems?

In addition to the more conventional approaches of the criminal justice system, this article suggests that there is a need for restorative justice as another method of addressing sexual crime. In support of this view, the present article explores the possibility of a hybrid justice system based on a complementary relationship between restorative justice and the criminal justice system. An analysis of the limits of the criminal justice system and the need for restorative justice in the contentious area of sexual crime will be followed by a detailed examination of key justice considerations when trying to marry both criminal justice and restorative justice perspectives. Such considerations include: the meaning of justice; legislation; sentencing principles; due process; victims’ rights; and the location of restorative justice within/alongside/outside the criminal justice system. The aim of this article is to determine whether it is possible to reconcile two seemingly juxtaposed methods of justice delivery in the context of sexual crime in order to create a hybrid system of justice that best protects and responds to the rights and needs of victims and offenders.     

The interaction of criminal procedure and outcome

Procedural quality is an important aspect of crime victims' experiences in criminal proceedings and consists of different dimensions. Two of these dimensions are procedural justice (voice) and interpersonal justice (respectful treatment). Social psychological research has suggested that both voice and respectful treatment are moderated by the impact of outcomes of justice procedures on individuals' reactions. To add to this research, we extend this assertion to the criminal justice context, examining the interaction between the assessment of procedural quality and outcome favorability with victim's trust in the legal system and self-esteem. Hierarchical regression analyses reveal that voice, respectful treatment and outcome favorability are predictive of trust in the legal system and self-esteem. Further investigation reveals that being treated with respect is only related to trust in the legal system when outcome favorability is high.     

‘I don‘t know what you people are so concerned about’: homicide survivors’ experience with the Canadian criminal justice system

Victims of crime are often confused and frustrated by the criminal justice process. Those who have lost loved ones to homicide – often called ‘homicide survivors,’ ‘secondary victims,’ or ‘co-victims’ – suffer not only loss and a justice system that seems to have little place for them, but are often also left unaware of the circumstances of their loved one’s death. The current study sought to further our understanding of the experience of homicide survivors in the Canadian justice system. Toward this end, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five individuals who lost loved ones to homicide. Results showed that receiving information and being treated kindly were far more important than having an influence over the proceedings; additionally, there was a great deal of distrust of the justice system as a whole, regardless of the kindness shown by individual actors in the system. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

The truth and the trial: victim participation,restorative justice,and the International Criminal Court

In the field of international criminal justice, the international criminal court (ICC) has been lauded for its integration of victim participants into its legal proceedings. In particular, the ICC’s framework of victim participation has been understood to figure as a balance between retributive and restorative justice as it enables the actual voices of the victims to be heard. However, there has been little research that considers how victim participation works in practice as a form of truth-telling. In order to begin to address this gap, the integration of the ‘voices of the victims’ into the proceedings and outcome of The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is explored. The forms of harms and experiences that comprise the truth of the events under adjudication put forward by the victim participants are considered, and then how the truth-telling functions of the ICC represent these states of injury. While the ICC’s legal proceedings enable victims to speak of their harms and experiences, their ‘voices’ are largely absent from its judgment. To address this issue, the ICC needs to develop and maintain a level of ‘restorative justice coherence’ to manage victims’ expectations of its justice approaches.     

论犯罪控制视野中的刑事诉讼监督

犯罪控制并非程序正义的对立面,其目的之一即是对公民人权的保障。但是,犯罪控制的＂度＂把握不好就会有害于程序正义的实现。因此,有必要对犯罪控制进行＂度＂的控制,刑事诉讼监督即为方式之一,其关注点是人权与正义。新时期实施刑事诉讼监督,应坚持宽严相济刑事政策,吸取情境预防的经验,理顺法律监督内外部关系。     

恢复性司法“中国化”之制度抗衡问题研究

就被害人、犯罪人利益保护而言,无论是附带民事诉讼制度、还是刑事被害人补偿制度抑或是刑事和解制度、非刑罚处罚方法,它们都远不如恢复性司法那么周详;就提高诉讼效率而言,刑事简易程序功不可没,但已无拓展的空间,亟须恢复性司法的加盟。     

Service Providers’ Knowledge and Perceptions of the Legal Service Needs of Crime Victims

Currently, there is an expansive body of victimization literature within the criminal justice field, which covers a number of essential topics such as victimization trends and patterns, short-and long-term effects of victimization, as well as specific effects of intimate partner violence and sexual assault victimization. Despite the variety of topics examined by empirical research, there is a noticeable lack of discourse pertaining to civil legal services for crime victims. This study is among the first to take a close look at civil legal services for victims by exploring three uncharted areas including: (a) service providers’ knowledge of civil legal services, (b) the legal needs of crime victims and available services, and (c) barriers between victims and accessing civil legal services. Using quantitative and qualitative data from interviews with service providers, policy implications and future research recommendations are discussed.     

被害性与被害预防

被害预防是犯罪预防的重要一环,被害预防应该从被害性分析着手。被害性即指人身上所存在的足以导致犯罪侵害的一切特性,它与犯罪心理紧密相关。从犯罪人犯罪前的心理状态分析,犯罪人选择作案对象有一定规律,这种规律决定了被害性。被害人就其有无过错可分为两类,不同的类型具有不同的被害性,被害预防应从一般预防和特殊预防进行。     

Making space for restorative justice in criminal justice and criminology curricula and courses

Restorative justice, rooted in the practices of indigenous people across the globe, has grown exponentially in both theory and practice since its beginnings in Canada in the 1970s. Restorative justice has influenced the interactions between offenders and victims, helped community members address crime and develop self-efficacy, and changed the way some countries rebuild after a history of oppression. Despite these restorative justice influenced changes, many criminology and criminal justice programs pay scant attention to restorative justice in curricula. This paper will examine ways to include restorative justice in criminal justice and criminology curriculum and the challenges involved in the process. The paper will then examine how the Law and Justice Department at Central Washington University has incrementally added restorative justice components to its curriculum, culminating most recently with the addition of a Community and Social Justice course. The paper will conclude with several examples of classroom activities and assignments that have helped connect students with the theory and practice of restorative justice.     

Integrating the American criminal justice and mental health service systems to focus on victimization

Although most research and policy in the mental health and criminal justice arenas have operated independently of one another, there is a growing consensus suggesting the need for an integration of these two disparate, yet complementary systems. Furthermore, in light of the adverse mental health consequences that often accompany victimization experiences, it is apparent that these two systems should develop and foster overlapping services for crime victims. The research reviewed herein provides an examination of issues such as these, identifies some of the barriers that stand in the way of a successful integration of the two systems, and attempts to provide some guidance and direction for future integrated mental health and criminal justice system approaches. An outline of research gaps and directions for future study are offered for the integration of criminal justice and mental health systems, as such collaborations are likely to alleviate some of the deleterious mental health outcomes evident among crime victims and at the same time reduce the occurrence of repeat victimization.     

Well-informed? Well Represented? Well Nigh Powerless? Victims and Prosecutorial Decision-making

This article provides a brief overview of the ways in which prosecutors must engage with victims in the course of their work in criminal proceedings and what formal roles victims can assume in criminal proceedings. Besides exploring what rights victims have per se in criminal proceedings, analysis is provided as to what it means to be an additional prosecutor or a private prosecutor in several European criminal justice systems. A brief analysis of the effects these rights and the use of prosecutorial discretion has on victims is provided.     

Victims of fraud: comparing victims of white collar and violent crime

Mental health professionals have focused attention on the psychiatric sequelae of criminal victimization. This article compares the experience of white collar and violent crime victims on several parameters including statistical risk of victimization and psychiatric outcome after victimization. Emphasis is given to data obtained from interviewing 77 victims of a fraudulent financial scheme.     

Where Do They Belong? Giving Victims a Place in the Criminal Justice Process

Historically, victims once had an active participatory role in the criminal justice process and were responsible for not only initiating but also for prosecuting offenders. In common law countries, victims were gradually sidelined and by the 20th century, their role was reduced to that of a witness to a crime against the state. The exclusion of victims from the criminal justice process is a major source of dissatisfaction for victims as many of them want to participate in the criminal justice process. This has fuelled initiatives with restorative justice that claim to more fully include victims than conventional criminal justice. This paper examines three different approaches found in the literature on how to let victims participate. One view is that victims should leave the criminal justice system and that criminal justice should be replaced by alternative, restorative justice schemes in which victims are granted full recognition and respect for their dignity. A second approach is to integrate restorative practices such as victim-offender mediation in the criminal justice process. The third approach is to integrate victim participation and respect (so-called restorative values) in the criminal justice system. These three approaches are discussed and compared with one another. The paper closes with recommendations for criminal law reform.     

Victims and the restorative justice ambition: a London case study of potentials,assumptions and realities

Restorative justice is coming out of the shadows and in Europe this interest grows alongside a stronger victims’ movement with a domino effect on EU member states’ laws. In the UK, legislation now allows restorative justice at all stages of the criminal justice system, and as part of these developments, new restorative justice services that will be ‘victim-led’ are being funded. This paper questions this ‘kind’ of restorative justice, using unpublished findings from a research project that was conducted in 2017 in London. The project involved a survey with 66 victims and 44 offenders, followed by 11 in-depth victim interviews and a focus groups with 7 victims and practitioners. The data point out a number of assumptions and caveats, which must be addressed in order to ensure that further investment in restorative justice will yield benefits to all those whose lives are blighted by crime. The conclusions are relevant to anyone practising restorative justice internationally including policy makers and funders.     

被害人视野中的刑事案件撤销制度

刑事案件撤销导致刑事诉讼程序终结,可能使被害人追诉请求落空,导致被害人“二次被害”。从被害人砚角看我国刑事案件撤销制度,它完全就是一个由侦查机关按照行政程序作出刑事决定的过程,既剥夺了被害人的知情杈、参与权,又限制了被害人获得救济权,有悖程序公正的基本要求。因此,应当借鉴域外先进做法,按照正当法律程序的要求进行改革,加强撤案过程中被害人人权保障。     

Co-option,coercion and compromise: challenges of restorative justice in Victoria,Australia

Restorative justice (RJ) encompasses a widely diverging set of practices whereby those most affected by crime are encouraged to meet, to discuss the effects of harms caused by one party to another, and to agree upon the best possible redress of harms when appropriate. In its inception in the late 1970s, RJ was conceptualized and developed as an alternative to formal criminal justice practices. Since this time, however, RJ has largely moved from being an alternative to criminal justice practices to an ‘alternative’ practice within criminal justice systems. This institutionalization has resulted in the significant growth of RJ practices, but has also resulted in RJ being used for criminal justice system goals that are at odds with the needs of victims or offenders. This paper examines the use of the Youth Justice Group Conferencing Program in Victoria, Australia. Drawing from interviews with conference conveners, our research highlights problems related to administrative ‘constraints’ and ‘co-options’ in conferencing in terms of referrals, preparation of conference participants, and victim participation. Following presentation of findings, we conclude with a discussion of implications for the use of RJ within a highly institutionalized setting.     

Criminal Justice “Hollywood Style”: How Women in Criminal Justice Professions Are Depicted in Prime-Time Crime Dramas

With the abundance of prime-time crime dramas on television, it is imperative that researchers examine how female criminal justice professionals are depicted in the world of fiction versus in reality. In this study, a content analysis of 10 prime-time television crime dramas was conducted. Of the 69 characters observed, female criminal justice professionals were portrayed as young, White, and single. Female characters were more provocatively dressed, and they also were more likely to be victims of crime. Unlike previous studies that showed that female characters were underrepresented on prime-time television, here women were overrepresented as crime scene investigators, detectives, and special agents. Stereotypical images of women as subordinate, nurturing, affectionate, and sexually attractive still prevail. However, compared to their male counterparts, female characters were equally assertive, self-confident, and competitive.     

Rapid Assessment Exploring Impediments to Successful Prosecutions of Sex Traffickers of U.S. Minors

Critical psychological, systemic, and legislative barriers to the successful prosecution of child sex traffickers who exploit U.S. citizens were uncovered during a rapid assessment conducted in a U.S. metropolitan region considered a high intensity child prostitution area. Information obtained during 34 face-to-face interviews with criminal justice professionals most likely to encounter child sex trafficking victims was supported by the collection of supplementary quantitative data. Findings revealed complex psychological factors that deter victim participation in prosecutions of traffickers such as child victims’ denial of exploitation, trauma bonding between victims and traffickers, and frequent flight and revictimization. Existing inadequacies within the criminal justice system were found that may contribute to child sex trafficking persisting as a low risk/high reward crime.